Guild Wars 2

Marauders doesn’t have condition damage

Poor Wilson has virtually given up on playing warrior.

He’s learning Rev now after people literally dropped queue because they had a warrior on their team, which made Wilson sad

What ever happened to:

“Play what works for you” ?

I run pretty much the same thing Vaanss did in his axe berserker vid (I use Dead or Alive over the ferocity trait, because I am bad)., and it works pretty acceptably.

I tried sword for a while but I just cannot seem to get Flaming Flurry to work out for me.

This is a property of me, and not of Decapitate/Flaming Flurry. Someone else might prefer sword by far, and that is ok too.

While there is value in looking at what is “objectively” better on paper that isn’t exactly the be-all and end-all of the quality of a skill in a game so variable as GW2.

Should Decapitate get a damage buff? Maybe.
Is it bad? I personally do not think so.

I’m sticking with my Seer armor, which always looked a bit more armor-y to begin with.

I am contemplating changing the highlight colour from green to something else… but I’d have to buy a makeover kit to change my hair as well

Consider trying out P/P + D/P the unload skill was buffed in September by 26% per shot and hits like a truck. It’s basically ranged 100B from stealth.

I made a trapper thief. It’s really dumb, but also very funny.

Mind you, if more people learned to step into the black powder circles, I would expect a decrease in the ambient thief QQ levels.

The problem with stealth classes is that, by design, they must use their stealth abilities to survive.

The tuning on this is very close to binary; Either the stealth class is practically invincible, or they become a free kill.

This leads to a very undesirable situation where the stealth classes use a method of play that allows for very little, to no, counterplay. This is not fun for the receiving end of the damage.

But if you then nerf their ability to employ the zero counterplay strategy, THEY no longer work, which is not fun either.

Basically, the present design for mesmer/thief is terrible for both them and the other classes, and no amount of “tweaking” will fix it. A core redesign of the class mechanics is required.

InsidiousWaffle.7086:

Helicity.3416:

I think you’ll find that was 15.5k damage.

okay, so you have no condi cleanse, dodged or mitigated none of the damage, basically just let him hit you. Most builds give you 13-20k health anyways, plus you have a heal that goes for anywhere from 2-6k.

this is a L2P problem

Yes, yes I did absolutely nothing. That kinda happens with Basilisk venom and dazesteal, doesn’kitten

Except there is a dodge in the log (which was as soon as possible), and (after the daze wore off) I should have had to use the cleanse I needed to counter the OTHER condi thief’s opener already, right?

Combined with perma stealth.

I definitely need to l2p, so I too can combat strategies that have literally no counterplay.

I think you’ll find that was 15.5k damage.

Presented without further comment.

50% seems fine to me. I rarely spend full duration in stealth on my power mesmer anyways.

The scoring system needs change, that much is pretty clear.

Things that need to be devalued:
-Capping when the other server(s) have very few to no players
-Double teaming a server that is not way ahead in points
-Monoblobbing and cycling downgrades over all the maps while not defending any captured objectives

I would propose a multiplier to the points value of each objective (in brackets), based on your server population vs the number of enemy players, across all (regular) WVW maps.

The value that determines the multiplier bracket should be based on:

Holding an enemy objective:
The ratio of your players to the number of players on the team the objective belongs to

Holding your own objective:
The ratio of your players to the number of players on both enemy teams

This means you need two sets of brackets of multipliers, one for captured enemy objectives, one for your home objectives

The multiplier should be applied to a portion of the objective’s point value (to prevent abuse situations).

For example:

Holding a tower belonging to an enemy server that outnumbers you 3:1 might give you a 3x multiplier to a percentage (let’s say 50%) of its point value.
(obviously these are arbitrary numbers, but once such a system exists the brackets and bonus point % are easily adjustable)

So now the tower is worth: 5 + (5*3) = 20 points instead of 10.
If the larger server takes a tower off the smaller one, they might get: 5 + (5*0.2) = 6 points instead of 10.

The astute reader will note that this means defending objectives becomes much more important in this scenario, which is OK.

I would probably also recommend building in a “decay” of the multiplier each tick, so as not to inadvertently create fringe scenarios where ninja capping and logging off becomes a massive points gain mechanic.

Under such a system, running around with 50 people at 5am while there are no enemies will still net you points of course, but if everything is just speedily recapped you’ll likely only get the objective to tick once or twice at almost half value, at the same time the poor guys you are running over with your blob that are recapping everything are getting mondo points per tick.

Obviously the multiplier values need to be carefully tuned so you don’t create scenarios encouraging people not to play, but still punish nightcapping and blobbing.

Likewise, strike teams of ninja cappers become a very valuable asset in this scenario. If Server A is blobbing the kitten out of EB, and Server B sends a few 5-10 man teams to the borders to cap all their small objectives, Server A will have a terrible tick despite their numerical superiority in one place.

I personally find that desirable as threeway blobfights with 2-3s skill lag demonstrate pretty clearly that the game can’t handle mega blobs.

The nicest thing here would be that the objectives that are worth the most when captured from an enemy are those belonging to the server with the most people online, which may help a little with double teaming a server that is already down in points but has a “reputation” and the like.

This is just some stuff off the top of my head at the office, I may be overlooking some terrible flaws.

Holy kitten. Holy, holy kitten.

Noss.4105:

If you have a focus party, then go for max single target damage with few disengages and focus enemy backliners while flanking. Leave the AoE stuff to classes that do it well.

^this

You’re much better suited for pressuring enemy Eles and the like (or even cheeky stealth stomps with distortion up)

SrebX.6498:

I’ve always loved mes, yet I hated playing it in WvW since it had pretty crappy AoE abilities… Have anyone started theorycrafting a build for large scale WvW for Chrono and would care to share it?
Was thinking about running Sw/sh+staff, not sure though… Haven’t played mes in so long

Null field + Gravity well might do something.

But you’re probably still more effective as a backline assassin.

Add diminishing returns to stacking stealth. Problem solved.

Rain.9213:

Warrior was always designed as a straightforward class. It’s simple conceptually and simple to get the hang of when playing. There IS a skill gap for it though. Just cuz the class is simple concept wise doesn’t mean you can just mash buttons and win especially right now with how powerful Ele and Mesmer are. You gotta know when to pop those stances, signets, and dodge same with every other class. Only exception is that the damage Warriors deal is straightforward.

So I have to disagree with you OP. I think the way Anet thinks of Warrior is fine. If you want a more complex class, there are way more options out there that fit what you’re looking for. Revenant being one and also, Necro and Thief specs will be getting greatsword and Physical skills, respectively, and have a similar role to warriors of being in your face damage dealers.

Also, I like Berserker’s design. It’s adds a decent layer of complexity in deciding whether you want to go Berserk or use your F1 Burst skill in a fight. It’s just enough to make the Elite spec interesting to me but I certainly understand where you’re coming from. Still, I think Warr is fine conceptually.

^this

Warrior is mechanically and conceptually simple, but strategically demanding.

In order to make it shine you need to really think about what you’re going to do in advance.

How hard can it be to make a horn sound like a kittening horn. really.

1) it needs adrenaline to fire, preferably three bars
2) it is a thin narrow line which pierces with a very long cast, making it difficult to hit where you like, or at all.
3) it’s not even close to the damage output of a well placed necro well.

DCed from EB earlier, now having the same problems as others in this thread.

Nachyochez.9758:

How important is the food/utility?

When just futzing around I tend to leave them off since I’m starting to run low on gold (saving up mats for Ascended back piece), but I’m starting to think that might be a large part of my problem if things are taking too long to die.

Food and Oil/Crystal/Stones are HUGE. Never not use them.
If you’re low on cash just grab the second-best variety (which is not a whole lot worse, but often 1/10th the price) just use something!

Nachyochez.9758:

Whew!

Thank you both; that makes perfect sense and is solid advice I’ll start putting to use next time I’m on.

Do you think a gear swap would be advised/necessary, or am I just needing to practice the unique style of this class before investing more gold?

I am personally of the opinion that starting with a “cookie cutter” build and then tweaking as you go along is the best approach (while there is definitely a theorycraft “best” loadout for any build, I’d rather run something slightly less theoretically optimal if it feels better how I play it).

For example, my Mesmer has a few bits of Valkyrie, and my stacking sigil is on my Sw+T set. This is both because I like to get stuck in and finish my targets close range (which I certainly do not HAVE to do). So a bit more health and stacking is worth it for me.

Just keep at it, give it some more time!

Nachyochez.9758:

Silverkey.2078:

snip

This raises a question I need to ask, but before I do I have to explain.
As I mentioned earlier I also have a Condi Ranger that I used before swapping to Mes for the utilities. With it, I can flip any camp any time. I’ve flipped Dredge-enforced, upgraded, with guarded supply dolyaks ready to head out solo and did it with no issues.

From what I’m understanding, this isn’t going to be doable on Mes with disengage/reengage tactics? So I’d need to pick off the ranged targets, reset, then come back in for the lords and such?

Or is this just to get the hang of flipping, and the greater potential is there once I’m no longer a bad?

Generally camp flipping has kind of a “method” which is a little different for every class/build. Just keep doing it and it’ll reveal itself automagically in my experience (eventually you’ll notice what works and what doesn’t for your particular build)

Silverkey.2078:

I partly agree with Helicity except on the “lazy and cheap” part (not after the patch). Certainly more forgiving, but not lazy.
If you run PU, disengaging when things look bad is indeed a good idea. Try to come progressively, single out enemies as much as you can, focus on archers first because their blind can really destroy mesmers. Running a bit of reflect can actually help (see below).

I personally play shatter condi PU. To start, try to avoid upgraded camps or camps with mercenaries (their number can easily be overwhelming). Ether feast instead of signet of ether may be easier thanks to the burst healing (but a well managed signet can be very strong). Since you have already 2 manipulations in the build, I would actually recommend using mirror and traiting manipulation to get the reflects I mentioned above.

It was certainly not a dig at people playing condi, just my personal opinion (which as we know, are like certain bodily orifices)

I wanted to add that withdrawing slowly is a strategy that is very strong on condi Mesmer, if you can bait an enemy into overcommitting resources in order to stick with you, you will almost always end up killing them. Why? because moving and using skills against condi mesmers really hurts!

There are a few exceptions to this rule of course, but I know I’ve died more than once on my warrior because I over-chased a Mesmer I realistically was never going to catch.

I only play power shatter in WVW, so I’m probably not the best source of advice (I personally think condi Mesmer is very very lazy and cheap) but I can tell you what I’ve learned, personally;

Greed kills.

Just that. It’s very easy to overcommit, lock yourself out of your defensive utilities in your desire to apply more damage to the target, and then you end up going “I have nothing to press, and there is a 100b heading my way”.

You have to play to your strengths, and those are confusing the enemy and repositioning.

Don’t be afraid to disengage because of the burning desire in your gut to kill that guy RIGHT NOW.

Additionally, I don’t think condi Mesmer it at it’s best near zergs. The main zerg will shrug off your condis and it’s not the ideal spec for picking off backliners due to the extended time needed to kill things with conditions.

Before everyone falls on me, I’m not saying you -can’t-, I just think power is better for that.

Soloing camps shouldn’t be too hard, the main thing you want to do here is get all the npcs in one spot (pull and go around a corner) and make sure you always have images/phantasms around to distract them from hitting you. Don’t be afraid to kite the dumb npcs around a building either!

I play power shatter with GS/Sw+T and while I can definitely feel the damage reduction I’m not having unreasonable difficulties in fights.

I just can’t completely destroy people in a single combo with my eyes closed anymore.

Can’t say I think that is unreasonable. Feels about right now.

Guess I get a week off from WvW, because my goodness is this going to suck.

I think a lot of it is from people who play classes that previously considered mesmers “free”.

This is no longer quite the case, and a mediocre thief will no longer trash a decent mesmer with his eyes closed.

If you were able to do ok to good on power shatter before the patch for example; you’re now very very dangerous instead, and it’s surprising people.

Players that are better than you will still beat you of course, as they should.

Bonus: dodge through people with Deceptive Evasion, and then shatter during the dodge, after the image spawns for a nice POW!

lighter.2708:

They take 50% of your HP (if you zerk enough) with 2 buttons which can be executed in like every 10~ seconds.
All they have to do is stealth, and click two button, stealth again.
or they can just insta stun you and click two buttons as well.

if you are lucky enough to actually predict the stealth burst and countered, they can do this forever until you are dead.

unless you actually proc quickness and fast kill them before they react.
if you are dps war, you have to spam quickness, this is the new way of zerk war

Now you know what they felt like all the times we caught them in stealth with bullrush and one shot them with 100b.

There is no “damage problem”.
You’re just on par with the other professions now.

You didn’t realize you were kitten before.

I’m not gonna lie, I am having a lot of fun. I finally feel like my power shatter/PU build is playing correctly. It was always “sort of ok” but now I can actually compete with other roaming classes.

I can still get completely wrecked, but at least I have a decent fighting chance against almost anything.

Iavra.8510:

For, for one the “cannot attack” part obviously only applies to the mesmer, not for illusions. Also, being able to full heal or reset fights in stealth is what people hated about thieves since the game got released.

There are currently more pressing issues, like the general power creep (all classes need their damage toned down, both condi and power), but i still think the trait is a bit too strong right now.

Perma-stealth works in many games, because you cannot do anything while its up.

That’s the thing, you can do something in stealth, especially as mesmer. Also, other games usually give you a long or permanent stealth once and as soon as you enter combat, stealth becomes sparse and can only be used as a last resort.

While I’m certainly inclined to agree PU is a bit much right now, you seem on a personal crusade against all things Mesmer. As evidenced by the plethora of salty replies you left on practically every thread on the first page of this forum.

What people are NOT taking into account vis a vis Prismatic Understanding mesmer stealth is this:

- the duration are very long
- the cooldowns are ALSO long

What this means is that the decision to prematurely break stealth to cast a spell has a high opportunity cost, because it will be quite some time before the stealth ability used comes off cooldown.

Compare this to the Thief, who has a very low cost associated with breaking stealth, the primary stealth-gain abilities (Cloak and Dagger, Black Powder + Heartseeker) do not have cooldowns associated with them and can be reused provided the thief has not depleted all his initiative.

These are two very different applications of the stealth mechanic, the mesmer can remain in stealth “longer” on a single application, but pays a higher price on breaking prematurely, whereas the Thief has a shorter duration, but is rewarded for entering and leaving stealth frequently.

The mesmer can put themselves at a disadvantage by greedily breaking stealth too often, which ends up with them having no more stealth cooldowns available.

I think PU at 75% instead of 100% might put it in the right spot.

neptunechild.4831:

I used to run torch cleansing (two cleanses in total) before patch and it works well and I have to pack Mantra of Resolve now but I still always gets owned by condis even with the buff to mantras.

May I suggest arcane thievery (if you have mirror on manipulation traited) ?

Curunen.8729:

Right I think I see my problem – I’m trying to dodge immediately after casting ileap, but because the cast time has been increased it means no clone – the skill goes on full cooldown and nothing to swap to. :/

Tbh I preferred the older faster cast time when I could dodge very quickly after casting. You have to wait a moment after casting to ensure the clone is summoned before dodging otherwise it doesn’t summon and you can’t swap.

A bit disappointing because it’s not as fluid as it used to be.

I don’t think that’s it. I’ve had the clone spawn, hit the enemy, and was still unable to swap.

I’ve created a thread on the bug report forum, please go +1 it and add your diagnosis
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Illusionary-leap-fails-randomly/first#post5196926

Hi guys, just an FYI a lot of mesmers (including myself) have noticed that the swap on illusionary leap sometimes simply… doesn’t work.

It seems to be related to either you or the target dodging during the first part of the cast, which then stops you from initiating the swap on the second part.

PU is going to get nerfed within 2 weeks. Calling it now.

I did a 3 image + self wrack for 18k earlier tonight in WvW, which works out to a little less than your single wrack.

it seems a bit wonky, like as if when people dodge the phantasm, you cannot activate the swap.

Check if your traits did not accidentally reset. Happened to me earlier.

Foefaller.1082:

Helicity.3416:

REMINDER:

“Plague: This skill is now considered a corruption skill and applies 1 stack of bleeding for 2 seconds to you every second it is active.”

Take plague off your bar, you’re gonna kill yourself.

The self destructive effects of Plague, while cause for concern, have been greatly exaggerated.

Plague increases your base Toughness by 4x and your base Vitality by 3×. In the coming patch, that will mean 3000 additional armor (increasing your armor to about 5k if running no toughness gear) and 20k extra health (Doubling your base health when running something with no Vit)when using Plague. The Health part is important: Right now when your total health drops when leaving Plague, you maintain the same total health % that you had when it ended. So while a Necro in Ascended Condi gear with food buffs and might stacks might do 10k actual damage to their self when using Plague, even with Carrion stats, will only be around 25% of their Plague health lost, which means their normal health will only be depleted by about 5k once Plague ends. Just a little tidbit to keep in mind.

You need to re-examine your math. And look at the people who have been testing.
You’re liable to drop yourself to less than a quarter of your health on a rabid/dire build, and that is if no one is beating on you.

In addition when you pop out of plague, your only /viable/ heal now slaps you with 10 vuln (and a blind if you run master of corruption, AND a chill if you have chill on blind).

Basically, necro is hosed.

REMINDER:

“Plague: This skill is now considered a corruption skill and applies 1 stack of bleeding for 2 seconds to you every second it is active.”

Take plague off your bar, you’re gonna kill yourself.

I wonder how many people are going to kill themselves in Plague because they did not read (the INCREDIBLY kittening stupid) self-bleed stacking.

I don’t know on what kind of group-think yes-man organization Anet’s development runs, but it’s appalling.

The sheer ignorance displayed in the Necro changes is staggering.

Anet you should be deeply ashamed.

I feel very sorry for Necro mains who enjoy PVP.

This is the dumbest change I’ve ever seen.

I think Arenanet would do well to remember what happened to CCP Games when they acted this foolishly.

It cost them 20% of their staff.

THEY were lucky enough to turn it around after that, mostly by the good graces of their customers. Anet won’t be as lucky.

I think we need one.

I personally am not very interested in having to go out and do 65 skill challenges on 6 characters to get the traits i already had unlocked back.

That seems to me like unacceptably terrible design.

Unholy Pillager.3791:

Jayden Ennok.3687:

I have yet to see a nerf post on melee power rangers, really don’t know why nobody complains about them. Melee aa hits almost as hard as lb aa, all that while that power ranger afk’s at safety of melee distance.

Mind-boggling o_O

I hope you aren’t serious. A thief calling ranger power melee no-risk?

If you had ever played a thief, you’d know how silly you sound.

Ranger is bull poopoo, and everyone knows it.